Blogging to Oblivion

2011-05-09T11:28:00.000-07:00

Found this at my favorite surplus electronics shop this weekend. Going to gut it and make it into a stereo preamp with the Soviet Missile tubes. Still looking for a few components. The proper resistors and some decent capacitors. I may be able to scrap a few from other existing surplus.

I had bought a transformer for the project, but an considering using the power supply portion of this unit. Its already built to power tubes. The question I have is will it be enough to also supply phantom power?

2011-04-26T11:46:00.000-07:00

New Gear

2011-03-06T17:59:00.001-08:00

Good-by winter... For now anyway...

2009-04-29T14:27:00.001-07:00

This is an April Spring shower in Oregon.

Winter is leaving bringing warmer weather. I will miss snowboarding for the next several months.

But it will be nice to sit on the porch and sip coffee in the morning!

For now one last snowboarding trip this coming sunday 5/03/09.

French Bread!

2009-03-24T13:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, I finally got around to making my first loafs of French Bread. It really wasn't to hard.

I was able to make this stuff on the left into actual bread! I thought I was going need butter and egg to coat the top, but the recipe I ended up using was very simple and didn't call for it.

For a long time bread has fascinated me. When I was young my Mum used to take me to a bakery in Mendocino CA. to get a slice of pizza once a month. Walking in to the bakery always smelled great. There were so many delicious things there, but the pizza was what I was most excited about. I still get that warm feeling every time I walk into a bakery. Nothing smells as good as fresh baked bread.

Later in life I realized that a good portion of the population probably didn't have the skills to make bread without buying the ingredients from a grocery store. So I set forth trying to learn the science of bread making.

The thing I find most interesting is the concept of Yeast.

Single Cell organisms that produce gases and makes the flour rise. How someone figured this out over 10,000 years ago is beyond me. But there it is bubbling when warm water is added.

Mixing the flour with the Yeast starter was harder than I thought it was going to be. I think I need to invest in a good mixer.

kneading the bread dough wasn't to hard, but it was messy.
Once again its amazing how the bread dough rises.

It gave Marni and I a chance to catch a movie, but because of that it ended up rising an extra hour.
In the end it looked and tasted just like French bread! Personally it turned out a little heavier than I was expecting. Actually if I stuck it in a bread pan it would have made good sliced bread for sandwiches. I'll have to try making that sometime.

But for now I have solved some of the mysteries bread held for me. Like how do you make flour and Yeast from scratch? Also it turns out people prefer to use sea salt.

So now if things get so bad in the world that we have bread lines in America, I'm confident that we could figure out a way to make our own delicious bread! All done without having to buy things from a grocery store.

You can get sea salt from the Ocean. A 10x10 sqr ft patch of wheat can give you enough flour to make 25-30 loafs of bread. And Yeast can be found on the skin of Organic grapes, or even by boiling potato water and leaving it out for a while so natural Yeast in the air will start to grow in it.

I still have to do some research on that.

After I make my next batch of bread, I plan to learn how to make Pizza Crust! Maybe some corn bread as well as tortes for tacos! To me baking seems like a blast, but oddly I have no desire to learn how to cook.

White out Weekend

2009-03-18T10:25:00.000-07:00

Who would have guessed I would be posting more snowboarding photos?

We just had a double weekend of boarding. We rented a condo in Government camp for a night.

Mt. Hood Meadows was just a 20 min drive away. Its nice not having to get up at 5am and drive 70 miles like we normally do. Seems the weekdays are the best time to go. There was hardly anyone there on Monday. So there wasn't much waiting in line to get on a lift. The only down side of the weekend was that there was a major snow storm, so by the end of the day on Sunday the wind was hitting 70mpr at times and they had to close the lifts an hour early. At times we couldn't see where we were going and the wind was blowing us over but we still had a great time.

I had promised myself I would take it easy on my first run. Sometimes if I take a run that is to physically demanding I get a little warn out.

So on my first run I took a less traveled path and ended up getting stuck in an area with waist deep powder and chest high snow drifts. You can see the photo on the left.

If you don't know what its like trying to walk out of that you should try it sometime. When I finally got to an area with enough of a fall line to ride out I was totally exhausted and a little light headed.

As I was walking out others arrived and ended up in the same situation. The guy fallowing my tracks through the snow was a little freaked out. When we got to the top of a near by black diamond run he asked me where we could ride down. I told him right here, he quickly replied "I'm not good enough of a snowboarder to do that. Bummer for him, he had to walk another 50 yards in the snow to a less steep hill. When I finally got back on my board I soon made another mistake and ended up getting stuck again. When I got down to the bottom lift I had already spend most of my super human energy for the day.

The rest of the day went pretty well. Marni rocked her new Rome Mod snowboard. It snowed all day for both days that we were there. So by mid day much of the tracks were already starting to fill in. We are going back tomorrow!

Dramatic fog!

2009-03-08T19:45:00.000-07:00

Took these photos early morning the other day. To bad you can see the roof of that ugly building. I know this isn't much of a post, but I thought the fog was worth sharing.

Finally a great snow day.

2009-03-08T19:26:00.000-07:00

What a friggin incredible day. Almost to much powder, to much fun. So far this year we haven't had great luck when it comes to epic snow days. Since we go every sunday its a bit of a gamble with the weather. This time we hit the mark. We made first lift and there wasn't anywhere that we could find that wasn't covered in knee deep powder. Even the groomed runs plowed the night before were covered. At times it was to much, but were not complaining. Just hope its this good when Marni's cousin Stephen gets here from Iraq. Were taking him snowboarding while he is on leave.

Marni got to try out her new Rome Mod 154 Snowboard. Looked like she did great with it. Amazing she didn't get powder stuck all day. The board is a little wider, so it gives her more float. Anyhow I am beat. To tired to write anything more.

Still talking about snowboarding.

2009-02-15T20:30:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, I said I would talk about some other things other than our trips to Mt. Hood. Its just the rest of my life is busy I can hardly find time to do other things other than or weekly trip to the mountain. Anyway I just wanted to post a few photos. So here they are! The day started out with a snow storm. A much needed storm. This was the first trip since Xmas that we had freshies, a nice chance from the hard packed groomed runs with ice anywhere of the beaten path. So needless to say we had a great time. Really wore our selves out! Marni met up with her friend she knew in the 6th grade. For some reason I forgot to take their picture.

And I still promise to post some blogs about other things than boarding. Case-

Spring Snowboarding in Winter

2009-01-21T11:40:00.001-08:00

Yes! Spring weather in the middle of Jan 2009. The real star of the day was the way the clouds spread across the valley Mountains.

The snow was fairly soft giving us good control. We had to wear our Spring coats to keep from getting to hot. It was also the first time we got to ride the Cascade Express lift this year.

Here are a collection of photos from the day (Jan. 18th). One of my favorite runs was melting out. That's the creek that runs along South Canyon. You could see holes in the bottom where the creek was running through. So needless to say we need more snow.

There were a few good pictures of Mt. Jefferson. You can see off the groomed runs how hard packed the snow is. All in all it was a great day.

Portland Fog

2009-01-17T19:00:00.001-08:00

Its just that, a lovely shot of the Portland fog outside our window. Seems like we are having a preview of Spring time. But dang it! Its melting my snow on the Mt.

We're going up to Meadows tomorrow to check out the situation. I do have some photos from my trip last week. I ended coming home early. There was no powder to explore. The parking lot was an ice rink.

But that wasn't before I ventured into Heather Canyon. Total mistake. To steep with snow that was to hard. I couldn't get any turns in without falling from the bounce of hitting lumps at high speed.

I just side slipped all the way down "Absolute Magnitude" feeling lame. But really, it was not manageable. I would like to go back when there is some real powder.

And now for the photos! You can see how windy it was, Absolute Magnitude from the top down, the deadly icy parking lot, the lines that were to long, and a vision of Heather Canyon promising more fun that it had. Case-

Photos From Mt. Hood Meadows

2009-01-05T22:26:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I post a lot about snowboarding. I suppose that's better than posting about how I stayed at home and watched TV all day.

Besides its the things that distract us that separate us from the terrorist.

If we didn't have our sports, video games, art, music, and social networking sites then we would probably be strapping bombs to ourselves and blowing each other up.

Truth is I really enjoy boarding. Its a great way to cut loose and actually feel like I did something on my day off. When I go back to work I'm ready to face another week of stress and agitation. I also have something exciting to look forward to at the end of the week.

When I'm out on the Mountain I always bring my trusty Canon PowerShot SD750 to take photos. Its getting pretty beat up. It gets wet, and banged around a lot. At times its been so cold that the lens wont pop out of the body.

When first bought the camera I spoke to it directly and said: "Hello, I'm going to destroy you". I say this to a lot of things that I own. I know nothing stays new forever, and I'm ok with that.

So on every trip I take a few photos. After a while you get board with taking the usual photos. So you tend to start taking less photos. But sometimes you get a good one. Most of the time the photos taken are only special you. They tell a short story of your day and the places you went. Later when the world is fighting with you, you can look back and revisit your trip.

The photos here are of course taken at Mt. Hood Meadows. Marni and I have season passes to Meadows and we own all our own gear. Since everything is paid for we can go snowboarding even when we are broke.

At the top of the Vista lift the ice was amazing. There were rivers of ice under the powder, and most of the lift was encased. Trees were also covered in ice. I should have taken more photos, but I was to busy trying not to land on my head. The light blue ice almost glows when its sticking up out of the snow. It says "Slide over me so I can knock you over.".

Did I mention half the fun of snowboarding is just being in and incredible hostile and beautiful environment.

They were blasting on Sunday as an avalanche precaution. You can see the dark spots up on the hills where the dynamite went off.

Don't forget you can click on any of these photos to get a full sized version.

One of the things I have a hard time with is capturing how high up or how steep the terrain is. With all the white its almost impossible to show depth of field. If you look down the hill of one of the many bowls that drop down off of Ridge Run, you can see tiny specks that are people.

Last Sunday we had great visibility, but the snow was hard packed. I was still able to find powder to play in off the groomed runs and in the trees. I have to learn how to play sick from work so I can get up there on a great snow day! Case-

The Season is Now.

2008-12-28T15:25:00.001-08:00

We are now in the full swing of snowboarding season. The snow has melted around our home making it easier to get to Mt. Hood Meadows in a reasonable amount of time. Thank goodness, I was getting tired of digging out the van every time I needed to go somewhere.

Marni and I took a trip to Meadows on the 25th. For the first time we had excellent conditions. The snow was just right, dry, soft and fluffy. You couldn't make a snowball if you wanted to. If you tried the snow would just crumble apart. In fact the amount of powder on the ground was ridiculous. Almost to much to walk through if you got stuck in the flats.

I spent much of the day on the Black Diamonds. Really wore out my legs, but had a great time. Its not often we get to go up and experience such perfect conditions.

My last run I took the Vista lift up. While riding the lift I noticed it looked like it was a lift to nowhere. Vista was not so good. Lots of rocks in nearly whiteout conditions made it difficult to navigate, but I was able to cut across to a closed area of the Cascade that was virtually untouched. Smooth, deep powder with enough of a fall line to really get going.

By about 1pm most of the hills were skied out. So we called it a day. I was looking forward to dozing off to sleep with fresh memories of carving up smooth snow. I'm guess I'm becoming a bit of a snow snob. Its not that I don't enjoy boarding on the groomed runs, its just late in the day my legs get tired. Case-

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It just keeps coming.

2008-12-22T14:57:00.000-08:00

Even now it keeps snowing, even though the news said it should have been done by now... That is until Wednesday (Christmas Eve) when the next storm hits.

I was going to drive to Mt. Hood today to go snowboarding, but we decided to wait till the 25th for the roads to clear. Last Sunday was one heck of a trip.

Everyone is trying to make the best of this massive snow storm. I took my friend Jay up the street to try out snowboarding. Jay surfs a lot so I think snowboarding is something he will enjoy quite a bit

Looks like Jay might be a natural. Now its just a matter of getting him to the Mt. to try it for real. Everyone says they wanna go, but when it comes to getting up at 5am for an hour and a half drive that's another story.

I am posting another round of photos because every time I think I have a photo of how much snow we have more comes along and makes the last photos look wimpy.

Remember you can click on any photo for the full size image.
Yeah, I know I went a little photo crazy. Marni also took a few of the photos as well. Case-

Urban Snowboarding

2008-12-20T22:13:00.001-08:00

Blog update! Marni and I were taking out the trash and decided to have some fun. Case-

Arctic Blast 2008! Dunt Dun Dun!

2008-12-20T17:33:00.000-08:00

Its been snowing for days. Most of the snow has melted as fast as it came except for today Dec. 20th 2008.

I woke up this morning to a white city. It been snowing without a break for about 12 hours now.

When all this started the entire city shut down. Nobody went anywhere.

Now after 10 days, people are driving around and going on with their lives. It always happens the first few days of severe weather. Everyone freaks out and hides in the safety of their homes. Then they give up on trying to call in absent to work, or putting off appointments.

Today we have had more snow all at once than the whole last week. Marni and I were out shopping and it was like business as usual. Thats a good thing. You can only stay at home for so long before you start to crack.

We have chains on the van so we are getting around very well. Tomorrow we get to drive up to Mt. Hood to go snowboarding. Its looking like its going to take a little extra time, but we are up for it.

Today however, we were able to enjoy the snow right here in PDX.

This is the street side of our little home. The above photo of the street is the same street I took the photo of my new bike a while back. There will be no riding bikes for now.

We live on the side of a hill in an area called the "West Hills" here in Portland Oregon. Hoffman Avenue is a side street off Broadway drive that zigzags through the hills much like some of those roads you see in Italy. One lane and lots of houses looking out over the city.

Some of the downsides to this are an occasional land slide, and slick roads when storms like this hit. Lucky for us Broadway Drive is a main road that runs through downtown Portland. So ODOT keeps up on keeping it clear. Its a lot of work, but they do a good job.

Right now the news is telling us things are about to get worse. Possible freezing rain on the way later tonight. No doubt they will come up with a catch title for it.

I snapped some photos today of the snow at home and while driving around town. Portland rarely looks like this. It will be fun to remember the "Arctic Blast" (as the news channels have labeled it.) later in the summer when its so hot you wanna spend all your time up at Timby on the Palmer.

The steps leading down to our apartment are almost to treacherous to walk on. I took some time to clear them with a shovel. By the time I was done, the steps already started to get snowed over again. Right now the snow is still falling.

I love the snow and wish this would happen all the time. Makes me wanna move to Alaska.

For now please take some time to enjoy these photos.

When we loaded the van with our snowboarding gear I was able to skate down Hoffman Ave. on my snowboard. Should have got some video of that.

It would be nice to get a few feet. We could drive up to Council Crest and do some jumps, or just slide down some of the back streets. For now there still isn't enough snow to not damage the base of our board.

P.S. We decided to take the cats outside for a bit since they were sleeping all day.

They didn't seem to like it all that much, but later Mortisha wanted to come out and visit with me a little. Maybe she wanted to prove she's tougher than she look?.

I have posted to youtube video at the end of the photos. Case-

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Opening Snowboarding Season!

2008-12-15T13:48:00.000-08:00

Had a great time yesterday. We got to attend opening day at Mt. Hood Meadows. It got to be super cold down 11 degrees, with the wind it was close to zero. Only a few lifts were open so after a about 4 hours we decided to go home. We did get a lot of turns in. Once again we didn't get a lot of video cause it was just to cold to have my gloves off. When we got home we found it had been snowing in Portland.

I did upload some video to youtube... If they accept it you can view it here! Case-

Downtown Prescott Arizona

2008-08-24T23:39:00.001-07:00

The town is small, but very quaint. Built around the old west and all the romance that goes with it. A street named "Wiskey Row" reflects the connection to the past.

However it seems to be more of a tourist trap with its variety of gift shops selling old west souvenirs all made in China or Peru.

Still its a lovely place to visit. I'm sure if your growing up there its a place you can't wait to escape.

While we were there an Arts fair was going on in the town square. Lots of locals showed off their over priced tourist trap gifts, along with local Indian memorabilia. Strangely no Indians could be found. - Case...

Arizona Vacation Day 2 (07/05/08)

2008-08-24T22:20:00.000-07:00

Im gonna make this one short. The second day of our vacation was relaxed. Of course it rained. We got to see a place called "The Granite Dells".

Its actually reservoir. An entire granite canyon filled with water. Houses in the area are built right into the Granite rock. So why not build a reservoir out of it?

In Oregon if someone gets in a public reservoir the authorities threaten to drain it to preserve public safety. In Arizona it looks like people just have a good time and nobody makes a big deal about it. Its nice to see people just having fun even when there are "no swimming" signs posted. Those swimmers were making a big mess with trash, bottles and cans, but when they left they cleaned up everything very nicely.

It was hot out even with the summer monsoons brining rain. Like a little kid I climbed around on the rocks. I seem to remember that being easier when I was younger. I kept coming upon rocks that looked like I should be able to jump to, but just couldn't bring myself to try.

The one time I did try to leap across a drop to a lower rock I did a nice hand plant after landing, managing to scrape my leg and hand up enough to draw some blood. So lesson learned. I am not as indestructible as I was a long time ago. It was funny that Scott was worried about the kids getting hurt. Nope... Just me.

If you look at the photos closely, you will see people off in the distance in boats. This gives a little perspective on how big the place is.

BTW, Clicking on the photos will bring up a full size image.

After our adventures at the Granite Dells, we went home and got cleaned up and rushed to downtown Prescott.

Marni lived there for 3 years and I wanted to see her old haunts.

Before we get to that I wanna post some photos of the area around the Granite Dells. The one photo with the bikes outside the bar I call "Locals Only". The other photos here are just of peoples homes. Like I said before I like to see the way people live in other places. In Arizona, people seem to build homes where ever they can.

Because of the formatting issues I'm having with placing pictues in this blog, I am going to make another entry for downtown Prescott.

Case...

Dinner is good!

2008-08-02T15:38:00.001-07:00

This photo was sent from my iPhone. Very cool.

Arizona Vacation Day 1 (07/04/08)

2008-07-09T12:11:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay on posting this. Since we got back from this trip I have been all over the country and haven't had a moment to myself.

Earlier this July Marni and I just took a vacation to visit our friends Scott and Louise in Prescott Arizona. We woke up super early drove to the Portland Airport, and quick were on our way to what I thought was gonna be a super hot and dry part of the US.

On the left you can see a preview of the Grand Canyon. We had many adventures planned. Visiting the Grand Canyon was one of them. Mostly I just wanted to take a lot of photos of a places I had never seen to before. I also enjoy seeing how other people in the other States live. Every state seems to have a different mind set and way of life.

Landing in AZ was fine. It was a lot hotter than I like, but we didn't have to spend much time outside. We waited for a while outside for the shuttle to take us to the car rental building. It was the "dry heat" I was expecting. Not to bad with a slight breeze but still somewhere over 105 degrees.

(Still to hot for me. Makes me miss snowboarding.)

Rent-a-car places are always nice inside, but when you get to the garage they are awful. Row after row after row of cars, and you can never find yours quickly. When we found the spot ours was supposed to be in the wrong car was in it. So instead of driving off the lot with a gas guzzling SUV, they upgraded us for free to a little blue Toyota Prius.

If you have never been in a Hybrid car before you will find them confusing the first time. This one didn't even have a key, it had a little cartridge, a push start button, and a little joy stick controller. It was probably 115 degrees in the car and all I wanted to do was get it started and turn on the air conditioning! It took way to long, finally we got it running buy just pushing a bunch of levers and buttons around until the dang thing started.

So finally on our way we left Phoenix. With a long drive ahead of us we got to see some of the local nothingness. Brown, Dry, and lots of Cacti. Very different from the very green Oregon I reside in. Its a wonder anything can live out here. BTW its not the best area for biking. Not just because of the heat, but because everything is so spread out. If you didn't die of heat stroke, it would take you forever to get anywhere. Anyone out there thinking just anyone can give up their car is horribly mistaken.

I generally don't like taking photos from a car, but these give you a good idea of what its like in the area outside downtown Phoenix.

The roads all have interesting names probably based back from the old wild west days. Names like "Dead Mans Wash" "Horse Thief Road" and our favorite "Bloody Basin Road".

You may also notice there are no mandatory Helmet laws in Arizona State, so we saw a lot of bikers with no head gear. The locals like to say they have more "personal freedoms" than other states. This attracts a certain type of person to this part of the country. People with a little more wild side I suppose, and they all want you to stay off their property!

When we made it up to Prescott AZ, (Marni's old stomping grounds) We found Scott and Louise's rental house. We unpacked, talked for a few minutes, and by this time I got to experience the opposite of the dry weather I was expecting... A very wet and rainy Arizona. Turns out its Monsoon season. The day starts off dry and then by about noon it rains massively for a few hours.

Not good for Scott and Louise because they are having a new house built, and with no roof yet it was getting very wet. Their last 2 homes had mold problems. Wanting to avoid collecting water they rushed us up to the newly half framed home.

(the photos to the left are taken from their new property)

Everyone, (even the kids) grabbed a broom and started sweeping the water off the exposed wood floor. This was becoming a daily ritual for Scott since it was a holiday weekend, it was going to be another week before the roof was on. Fingers crossed the water will dry out enough under the framing so no Mold will grow once the builders sealed the flooring.

As you can imagine after flying down from Oregon and driving XXX Miles to Prescott we were pretty tired. So we didn't get to do much more.

We did stop at a Safeway to get some snacks, and in the spirit of Arizona personal freedom I was surprised to find them selling hard alcohol in the isles along with everything else. Other than that places like Safeway are pretty much the same anywhere you go.

After all that, we drove back to their rental house and watched some fireworks in the distant sky. Nothing to spectacular, but the kids still liked em.

I was able to catch a little of the sunset to, but before that I tried to take a few decent photos from around the house. The better photos are still yet to come!

Biking in Portland

2008-06-20T11:53:00.001-07:00

Or maybe I should call this "Just a bunch of photos from the weekend"? Well I took a ton of photos. So I'm just going to keep this short and post them.

Marni her friend Diana, and I went for a ride around the Portland waterfront. Diana knew where all the bike trails were so we fallowed her. Much to my surprise there is a bike only road going down the river called "The Spring Water Trail" So we road over one of the many bridges and past the local science Museum "Omsi" and down the trail. We pasted Oaks Park, and road down to Sellwood where there was a nice water front park. Lots of dogs playing in the water. It was hot and sunny all day. After that we road back to town and around the Pearl district of Portland and had lunch. The condos are expensive and its very "Yuppie" in that area. The whole area used to be old warehouses. They still have some 100 year old cobble stone roads left down there. I look forward to the summer and many more bike rides. Its a little more fun biking around town than commuting to work.

When the sun comes out so does everyone else. There were a lot of people biking on the trails, but also people jogging and just taking there time walking. You see a lot of weird bikes, people get creative and build there own. We have lots of public water parks, and we have plenty of water so they are always running. Anyway, I'm out of time so please enjoy these photos. They should give you a good idea of what Portland Oregon is like during the summer. I may comment more later! -Case

I am not a tree hugging liberal hippy!

2008-05-29T22:28:00.001-07:00

A few things about me... I don't really buy into the whole global warming issue, we can't stop the oceans of the world from producing greenhouse gases. Sure land fills suck and over packaged products sort of piss me off. But face it. They will keep future archeologists busy for years and will leave our children with a better understanding of who we were. Besides when it comes down to it, I really only need the environment to last me another 50 years or so. But when my pocket book is taking a major hit, it may be worth a major life style change.

Gas prices are rising everyday. I've decided I just can't take it anymore. We are now over 4$ a gallon. Its starting to cost us 65$ to 70$ a week in gas just to get us to work. That is now my biggest expense next to rent. So enough is enough. I went out and bought a bike. Figure if I can not drive my car 3 days a week we may save 100$ or more dollars a month!

So now fully equipped with a new Gary Fisher Utopia Hybrid bike I set out on my first day of bike commuting from Portland to Beaverton Oregon this Wednesday (5/28/08).

It wasn't the best day. Cold and rainy. The weather just wont give us a break this year. But what the heck, I am a tough guy and can handle a little wet.

The ride down to the Max train to Beaverton only takes about 10 mins. The train ride takes about 20 mins, and then another 15 mins to work. So giving up the car 3 days a week leaves me with a little less personal time. But on the bright side I get to trek around the city and ride through Portland State University. Its always full of life.

There is something great about being out and about downtown. I have an incredible urge to stop and drink coffee at any one of a hundred coffee shops! You get to see a lot more of the city on a bike, something I have missed driving a car. Portland is beautiful and much to my surprise is one of the largest bike friendly cities in the US. You can see they are working on ways to make biking a little safer by painting the bike lanes green and raising awareness. Being on a bike you are much more exposed and while you are supposed to obey all the traffic laws and ride in the street just like a car, people still think of you as a pedestrian. Im still getting used to that idea as well because I feel like half car and half pedestrian.

The Park blocks downtown are great to ride through. Big trees, big sidewalks, and lately they have been having a sort of farmers market. I see great photo opportunities everywhere. There are sometimes odd things going on since Im so close to Portland State University. A bunch of kids were out offering "Free Hugs". They had big signs and everything. One asked me if I wanted a free hug and I just kept riding. I get enough hugs from my girlfriend and don't care to touch strange people I don't know.

Waiting for the train is ok, I just forgot about all the pan handlers and druggies that hang out around downtown. Sort of starts to get to you a little. I really just wanna be left alone. I need to practice my "Crazy Eyes" so people wont talk to me.

BTW the Max train has places to hang your bike, or you can just hold it next to you while you sit. I forgot about that and got on one of the taller trains. No big deal, just had to haul my bike up some steps and had less room to hold my bike. The flatter cars are the ones set up for bikes. They are low to the ground. They also have the bike hanging hooks.

Next time I will be a little more experienced in what train to get on. And I will try a few different routs through town.

So I made my way out to Beaverton. I keep thinking the Police are going to hassle me for something stupid like not walking my bike in the right place or something. But so far no troubles yet.

The ride to work from there was a bit longer than I thought. Things seem a lot closer when your in a car. But it was no big deal. I got to work on time and with my change of clothing was ok. All except I forget to bring an extra t-shirt. So I hope I didn't smell to bad. I had bought what's called a "Bike Commuting Bag" It holds a change of clothing and everything you need to freshen up. Even some emergency tools if you have then.

So on my way home I took advantage of the flatter MAX train and that made to commute home a little more comfortable. Riding home is a little nicer to cause you don't have to worry about getting all messed up and disheveled. You can hit the hills hard and fast and really give yourself a work out.

My total distance was only 7.3 miles. So thats not all that bad. Later I plan one making the trip home without the train. That rout will be a little over 8 miles. Its going to give me one hell of a work out. I am looking forward to that. Working an office job you don't get a lot of exercise in your day to day life.

(Sorry for the blotched layout, still trying to get the hang of formatting this blog)

With summer here. Snowboarding is being cut back and that is making me a little sad. But hopefully the biking will take its place just a little on the weekends.

Marni and I plan on riding some of those bike trails and sitting in the sun drinking coffee on the sidewalks of Portland with nothing else to do but make our way home. I need some time to myself with no obligations and nothing to do. It will be nice not getting up at 5am on my only day off and driving an hour and a half to a cold mountain. I'm thinking even riding home for an hour will give me some time to clear my head so I am not so stressed out. I need to work on that.

One last thing. On the way home I saw a drunk girl fall on the train tracks right in front of the train pulling in. She was able to pull herself off the tracks just in time. I would have helped her, but that would have meant I would have had to drop my bike. That would have been a bummer! ;) -Case...

Closing out Mt. Hood Meadows

2008-05-17T20:30:00.000-07:00

Haven't updated in a while. Life has me busy, but still I feel the urge to document my first full season of snowboarding.

Its been a great year with record snowfall. So all of us locals have been spoiled. The first photo here was taken on May 4th 2008. If you take a look back to the beginning of the season you will see the same view but with trees poking through the snow. Sadly that was the last day we got to snowboard at MHM. They closed the season a bit unexpectedly with less than a days notice. So we missed the last day along with a lot of other angry people.

Why? Probably to cut costs since the only people going are the season pass holders and they already got all our money. I think everyone expected them to try to stay open as long as possible, but management did nothing to promote new people to keep coming. They said "the quality of snow would not be good enough to offer an enjoyable experience". My other favorite excuse for not build some good snow parks was that "There was to much snow". Personally they are full of crap. It was a bit sad ending a ski season with 10 to 15 feet of snow. You can see to the left the Shooting Star area of MHM still has a full snow pack. More snow on the ground than most winters. In fact they closed earlier this year than they did last year. Go figure...

I don't wanna spend time complaining about MHM. Marni and I had a great time and we got to experience some incredible snowboarding. I personally got to hit Heather Canyon a number of times. Thats the "Back Country" area connected to MHM. The Terrain was very steep. Double Black Diamond steep. Its hard to describe the feeling of standing on the edge of a cliff thats as high as a city sky scraper and the incline is so steep that you can put your hand back behind you and touch the snow. Then when you drop in you know that one mistake can send you tumbling down 100s of feet if your not careful. It really makes you feel alive in a way you never knew you could.

Photos really don't do Heather Canyon justice. Its something you have to see first hand to really appreciate. No matter how hard I try I can't seem to capture how small it makes you feel looking down. If you look hard you can see people way down at the bottom looking like ants. Looking up from the bottom even looks more impressive. I can't wait for next year to try it all again. Maybe if we are lucky we will get some more record snow fall!
In the meantime I wanted to post some more photos so we can look back and remember what a terrific year we have had so far.

This one is looking up from half way down Heather Canyon. Marni is getting better at her boarding so I'm thinking next year she will be ready to tackle some more extreme terrain. We still have all summer to board at Timberline. So I think she will be able to handle it! Don't tell her yet. I normally get one chance per trip to get her to try new things. Most of the time I have to surprise her. :)

Out of all the times we went to MHM this year we didn't get to bring very many people. Chris Robin and Estera both co-workers from DirectBuy came with us once. We all had a great time. Marni's friend Tina made it once as well. Its hard convincing friends to get up at 5am in the morning to drive an hour and a half so they can fall down and hurt themselves! Its fun while your there, but if your not experienced the next day you are in a lot of pain from falling down so much. Not much of a problem for Marni and I since we don't fall down that much anymore.

Some of the highlights of the year... I broke a rib going over a jump(ouch), got to try the half pipe for the first time (not so good at it yet).

I've learned how to drop of cliffs without crashing. I like that almost more than going over jumps.

I can now put chains on the van in about 10mins. Driving in show is not such a big deal anymore. Marni can fallow me just about anywhere now. Its almost time to get her a new board.

You can click on any of these photos to get the full shot. Our little camera is taking a beating but its done a good job. Next year we will get a mini video camera.

Marni stands at the top of the Cascade express. There is another looking down the half pipe.

Marni and Estera walk off the Butter Cup, and then later stand in the parking lot. At the top is another photo of Marni standing at the top of the Mount Hood Express lift.

I like to take photos from high places. You can see some of the great natural features looking down from the top of Marmot Ridge. Those are so much fun to go flying off of!

On the bottom right you can see Chris Robin stuck in some deep powder! And to the right of that it looks like Marni has mastered that art of riding a snowboard strait on the flats!

I tried to get some photos of me going over jumps but its hard when most of the time I do that sort of thing solo. Marni got some video, but its never been of my best moments. All the shots we have are from video. Maybe I'll get some better ones this summer up at Timberline. Speaking of Timberline we just got back from there and now I have whole mess of photos to post from that!

I'm going to have to focus this blog on some other aspects of our life. With the summer coming and hot weather on the way along with the high gas prices we will probably find some other things to do one the weekend that don't require diver 3 hours round trip. Plus we gotta start saving for next years MHM Ski pass. Maybe when November comes around we can find some more friends to come with us. That should make the drive a little more affordable. We have lots of room in the mini van AKA "The Snow Mobile" ...or if we don't wash it after our boarding trips the "The Dirt Mobile"

For now I will leave you all with clips of video from Marni's birthday weekend.

Rome Snowboards

2008-02-23T18:35:00.000-08:00

Let me tell you about Rome snowboards!

After doing a ton of research I decided to purchase a Rome Design 155. I almost went with the Rome Mod, but since I already have a Burton Se7en I didn't want another board with a funny tail/nose. Now the Rome Design 2008 model is super light. Not a bit of fiberglass. All Carbon, wood and Bamboo. The closest board out there to it is the Burton Vapor. If you want the full details check out the Rome Snowboard website. It was a hard board to find, for some reason none of the board shops in Portland carried it. I REALLY wanted to look at it first. Finally my favorite shop Sublimity Snow and Skate Got a 158 in. Not the size I was looking for, but Steph (the shop owner) was able to get me the right one.

So How is it? Well first off the Rome website lists it as a stiff board. It is not. In fact is really flexible. At first I wasn't sure what to expect. My Burton Se7en is supposed to be a med. flex and the Design is a lot softer. The site recommends this board for Mountain/Backcountry use. After riding it I know why.

When going down super steep slopes it turns like butter. The light weight super flexible design enables me to turn quicker and smoother. That just what you want when one wrong move could send you tumbling. This is the feel I want when I am in a situation where there are no room for mistakes. I have a ton of control. The fact that its so light makes it feel as if I can jump higher, and it just seems to float over the pow.

The downside? Well because its so thin it is not as strong as your regular snowboard. Its not a board you wanna do rails on. And it is NOT recommended for "street use" Now all boards can break. Im just saying you might wanna be a little careful with this particular snowboard.

Ok so lets get down to why I'm really writing this blog. My Rome Design broke. The tip snapped while I was swooping through a deep dip in the snow. Didn't seem like it should have but it did. I was deeply distressed because I am not that hard on my boards. But there it was broken. Snapped in such a way that repair wasn't gonna do it.

Prepared for the worst I took it back to Steph at Sublimity Snow and Skate and asked for help with the warranty claim. She called the local Rome Rep and sent my broken board off with a smile. I didn't hear anything for some time. I was convinced that there was no way they would cover it.

It would have been very easy for Rome to say "Hey you broke it. Not our fault." I can only imagine how many kids send in boards broken from abuse expecting a free board in the mail. I expect that would get old after a while and any company dealing with that sort of thing would get callus to legitimate situations.

It took about six weeks. Then I got a call from Step and she said my board was back. I went in to find a brand new board! They replaced it with no questions asked.

I am now a dedicated customer of Rome. I will continue to buy from them and recommend their products to all my friends. I love all the tech and design that goes into them. Also the fact that they are a smaller company seems to help to keep them affordable. You really do seem to get a lot for your money. But when it comes to customer service, well... What more can you ask for?

Kids, don't forget to fill our your warranty card. I'm off to the Mount Hood Meadows!

Snowboarding so far for 07/08

2008-01-09T12:26:00.000-08:00

This snowboarding season has been great so far. We have gone up to Mt.Hood almost every weekend. We even go a few extra days in on the Holidays! At first the season started off slow. MHM (Mount Hood Meadows) opened on November 23rd with the lightest base of snow ever. Just 17inches. They had the snow makers going 24/7 and had staff pushing snow off the parking lot and edges of the trails to cover the bald spots where the ground was showing. We were all wondering exactly how the winter was going to recover since from what I understand the snow pack starts building a lot sooner than it did.

...But suddenly we got hit with a huge snowstorm. By the next week we had feet of now powder. Since then the storms have not stopped. Every weekend we go up there are several feet of new snow! Needless to say we have been having a lot of fun.

Snowboarding in powder is great but really different. Of course its smoother and gives you a lot more control, but you also have to change the way you ride a little. You also have to make sure you don't stop on any flat spots cause you end up getting "powder stuck". Your board stops and then you start to sink. Its very hard to get up and out of it. Thats a problem skiers don't really have since they can just walk through it. I got stuck in waste deep powder that 2nd weekend and it took all my energy to get out of it. I had to lay on top of my snowboard and paddle out like I was on a surf board. Since then I make it a point to have enough speed to make it through any flat area!

Marni is becoming a real pro. She went from falling down all the time last year to falling down once in a while. Now she is finding longer and steeper hills to slide down and getting better with every trip. It wont be long till she is slipping down some black diamond runs with the best of them.

I'm getting a little better myself. Still trying to work out the jumps. I really wanna fly through the air like a bird and I am almost there. I have been learning how to "drop" of hills/small cliffs, and been getting good at hitting natural jumps straight on. Its a lot of fun when everything goes just right. A little painful when they don't but no worries. You gotta take a knocks to get better.

This photo of Marni and I was taken New Years Day 2008. We try to take a new one every year. At this point I have so many photos of MHM and our snowboarding trips I don't know what ones to post. I may have to stop taking so many and focus on some video. But for now I will post a few more, then later I will put what I have for video up on my YouTube account. One last thing... Sadly I broke my new Rome Design Snowboard. Snapped the front of it going into a dip. I ended up having to walk about a mile and a half back to the lodge that day... Through the snow... That sucked. I am still waiting to see if they will be cool and replace it under warranty. Seems like it broke pretty evenly along the die cut of the base. Fingers crossed. Remember you can click on any of the photos for a full view!

Everything DirectBuy

2007-11-28T12:54:00.000-08:00

I just got back from Orlando Florida recently! Spent 11/17th to 11/20th there. I always feel like I am tempting fate every time I get in a plane. As I look out the window and see the ground thousands of feet below I know that humans are not supposed to be there drinking and eating snacks. So I am always glad to be back on the ground.

When we got to Orlando after flying flying 8-9 hours, we went straight to the hotel our company put us up in...

"The Gaylord Palms". It was a nice place. the whole hotel was set up to welcome us for the big DirectBuy convention. Everything was "DirectBuy" Flags and banners, projected lights and logos. No expense spared.

It really gave me a good idea of just how big DirectBuy is now. We recently hit the "worth over a billion dollars" mark as a company. However out here in Oregon it still feels comfortable and personal at our centers. Thats because our owners are great and really take care of us. We also have a great staff and very little turn over.

More about the hotel: It was huge, and out in the middle of nowhere. So we didn't really get to see all that much of Orlando. The food was good and I felt a little under dressed the whole time. I kept thinking "This place is for rich people, and I'm just a poser. But I still had a good time. I had to share a room with my co-worker Damien. He snores. I had a hard time sleeping and since I was 3 hours in the future I had to get up way to early for the presentations.

At the convention we get to listen to motivational speakers that touched on a lot of subjects: Attitude, the corporate business plan, customer service, and everything else you could possible imagine. Some of it was very boring, other times it gave me a lot to think about. They also gave out awards. The first photo below is Clay my boss getting an award for something.

In these photos you can see Damien, Clay, His wife Raylene, and Jeff. That was the extent of our party. I wish we could have taken some more staff. I wish I also could have taken Marni. It was lonely without her.

I don't wanna go on for too long so I'm just gonna post a few more photos.

Closing notes... Florida is to hot and sticky for me. The water is awful and nobody understand what good coffee is. I like colder places with a little more to look at. Florida was very flat. I could post a bunch of photos I took on the way back to the airport, but they would all look the same.

Since I have been back Marni and I went snowboarding! The season just started. Give me a few days and I will post some photos of our last trip! Case-

The Very End -0- Season

2007-11-01T11:49:00.000-07:00

So this is what Mt. Hood looks like at the very end of Oct. We are still waiting for the fresh snow. It should be here anytime. But lately it looks more like we will have a late season this year.

That doesn't mean you can't still go snowboarding. I went up there last Sunday (10/28/07). I wasn't sure what to expect. Only 45mins before the lifts opened I was able to get front row parking. The place was pretty empty and I thought there would be more snow. I was also a little apprehensive because I knew there would be no terrain park. What fun is snowboarding if you can't throw yourself off a jump or two? But after driving an hour and a half I decided to go for it anyway.

Half the Palmer snowfield was closed off. Rocks were sticking up everywhere. After our last snow storm we got a wind storm that peppered all the new snow with dirt. Nothing looked that great. But so far I have never been disappointed with a trip up to Timberline.

After taking a few turns I got to the 2nd half of the Plamer. It was little more than a canyon trail leading back to the lift and much to my surprise nature made its own terrain park! A really incredible snow wall! I missed it on the ride up. It wasn't until I was sliding past it that I realized how much fun could be had. Everyone else had the same idea. The photos do not do it justice. It was much larger than it looks, and the angles were sharp.

So hours of fun were had, and I completely exhausted myself. Everyone there was really mellow and having a great time. It was nice not to be around a bunch of snobby pros trying to work on their demo videos.

By the end of the day the temperature heated up and the snow got soft and wet. The drop off of the snow wall was really eaten up providing an opportunity to try out more extreme drops into softer snow. I had some pretty good wipe outs. Someone lost control and ran into me but was able to walk away laughing. I posted the video on youtube.
Click here to Watch Video!

Part of me wants to run up there this weekend, but I think I will wait for some fresh snow. I really wanna take Marni up with me, but she needs less rocks and more open space. I get tired of going alone all the time. We have a ski and snowboard expo in town this weekend anyway. Its should be a lot of fun checking out all the latest cool gear. Its gonna be hard not to buy anything! -Case...

The Last Warm Days...

2007-10-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

The last several days in Portland Oregon have been pretty warm and its bumming me out. Just after we had that big snow storm up on Mt. Hood dumping "more snow than adverage" for the year it all starts melting away. The good news is Timberline is re-opening the Palmer snowfield for fall skiing. So Im gonna go up there this weekend and practice avoiding hidden rocks. :)

In other news the construction outside my window is still going strong. I have lived here for over 4 years now and have always really enjoyed the view of downtown and sw Portland. That is until earlier this year some jerks decided to build a 10 story building outside my front window. The noise won't stop and the project is projected to take over a year to complete. Forget about sleeping in. They start banging on things the moment the sun comes up. Recording anything with mics in the studio is impossible.

The good news is that this I believe is the last floor. So after they put the roof on that floor we should still have a decent view of the city. I might as well also get used to people looking into my living room as well. I'll have to put a sign in the window that says "I am watching you"! I think if we sit low enough on our couch we might not see the building, but even now I can see the top floor and there is still no roof. Oh well what can you do anyway. I'll stop complaining.

I still love my home, and I still have a good view of Mt. Hood. Maybe soon they will move that giant crane. (Click on any of these pictures to see the full size image.) All in all it would be really hard to find a nicer place to live. Marni and I would like to move into a house. More room would be nice. But I really wanna wait for the right place. I hate moving. But with all this construction its looking more inviting every day.
-Case...

Intro...

2007-10-18T09:20:00.001-07:00

Ok, So here I am. Gonna start a blog so family and friends can keep up. See how it goes. This may be easier than writing individual letters!

If you know anything about me you probably know I'm big into snowboarding. So thats why this first post has a photo of Mt. Hood. It was taken 5/13/07 just after the season ended for Mt. Hood Meadows. Marni and I decided to start going to the Timberline ski area for some summer snowboarding. Its higher up on the Mt. than Meadows. We had a great summer up there and I was able to improve my snowboarding skills. The snow since melted, and the last time I was able to go was Aug. 31st but recently it started snowing again. I am hoping by the end of this month we will get some "turns" in on the slopes. Its hard not to be excited about such things. I know that I am not alone. Everyone up there feels the same way. That is why they are up there in the first place. Getting up at un-godly hours and treading through freezing temps says a lot about how you feel about the sport. Your into it, or your not.

So now with the 07/08 snowboarding season starting both Marni and I will get to try out our new skills in fresh snow. I'm wondering how crazy it will be up there the first opening month at Mt. Hood Meadows. I haven't had the chance to go a full season yet. I have to say I have really enjoyed summer snowboarding. Its a bit wet, but with the big blue skies and half empty slopes its well worth having to change your shorts.

Thats me going off one of the last good jumps of the summer left up at Timberline (8/31/07). Its a real drag having to hike back up the hill every time you hit a jump like that. There was no snow trail back to the lift. To get back you had to hike over moon like hills just to make it back to the main ski route. You don't get that sorta work out at a gym. I expect we will be whipped into really good shape by this time next year. That or I will die trying.

So now with our season passes in our hands we wait for a few feet of snow and almost a whole year of snowboarding. In the meantime I continue to work on my other passion (Bound in Oblivion) You will find a link to the site in the upper right side of this screen. -Case...